Program #23 Ode to the West Wind

Ier.

A.

A nest of singing birds three centuries of English verse her doctorate from just.

This is a poem of enormous energy.

The Ode to the West Wind by Shelley all the way.

If winter comes carom Spring be far behind.

Those words come of course at the end of the poem. They sum it up. They're

written by a man who expects the world to come crashing down. Who will his

destruction. Because there is no alternative. If all that he values is to have a light

in there to survive and grow. Surely detested violence and

destruction in themselves but he wills them to put an end to what is to

him a cover up to radical pseudo civilization

afterwards. A new world after winter. Spring must come.

He's writing in 1890. Let us remind ourselves

of the inspirations and disillusioning offered to him by the last 40

years in 1789 the French Revolution. Bliss

was it then to be alive but to be young was very heaven. So

said Wordsworth. But liberation became the new tyranny of

Napoleon. The nations rose against Napoleonic France

promises were made but after the victory of Waterloo in 1815

Metternich the Austrian Minister and like minds in other countries clamped down

one more tyranny. Four years after Waterloo Cherie

is involved in the conspiracies of the Italian liberal Patriots the carbon Ari

he longs for tyranny to be destroyed once and for the

intensity of his longing and lashes. The third stanza of this code.

Who do just waken from his summer dreams the blue Mediterranean where he

lolled by the coil of his crystalline streams beside a Palm is silent

and that is the West Wind.

Shani imagines it's appalling energy unleashed on the come in and see

an energy which is disturbed. The vast Atlantic to its depths. What can it do

to this smooth blue surface. What can revolution do to become

artificial enervating surface shining away of the old regime.

Who did it waken from his summer dreams. The blue Mediterranean where he lay

lolled by the coil of his crystalline streams beside the palm is silent

by his back and saw really old palaces and

towers quivering within the waves intenser all

overgrown with as your mass and flowers sweet

scents faints picturing them.

For whose part the Atlantic's level powers Cleave themselves into

chasms while far below the sea blooms in the

woods which where the sapless foliage of the ocean

the high voice and suddenly grow gray with fear and trying

to spoil themselves.

Or here.

And what is the worst when to show me first what is it literally in

nature or wild west wind the

breath of all terms being from whose unseen presence

the leaves dead are driven like ghosts remain in Tranter fleeing

yellow and black and pale and hectic red pestilence

stricken multitudes hoser who chatter your tears to their dark winter

the when you see where they lie cold and love each like a corpse

within its grave until I am as your sister of the spring shall blow

her clarion or the dreaming.

And Phil driving sweet buds like flocks to feed him with living

hues and odors play and his wild spirit

which are moving every way her destroyer and Preserver

here or here.

It is destroyer and preserver. It destroys what is corrupt and moribund

it preserves the seeds which will germinate in spring without the

wind. Life would end.

Shani mentions to west winds. First the breath of autumn's being

and seconded as your sister of the spring the warm west wind of spring which

brings moisture warmth and life. But his concern

mainly with the West Wind of autumn it brings winter. Winter

must come before spring.

Liberal Europe must destroy to rebuild wild

spirit which are moving every way here destroy and

preserve here or here

in the second stanza.

He looks out to sea at the storm surging in from the horizon where the eye cannot

separate see from Sky.

The one who stream made the steep skies commotion loose clouds

like Earth's decaying leaves a shared shock from the tangled boughs of heaven

and the ocean angels of rain and lightning. There are

spread on the blue surface of our own areas. Like the bright hair

uplifted from the head of some fears Mina had even from the dim verge of the

horizon to the Senate's height the lark's of the approaching storm.

The urge of the dying year to which this closing night will be the

dome of a vast sample code vaulted with all right congregated mind to

vapors from whose solid atmosphere black rain and

fire and hail will burst.

Oh here the angels are the messengers

announcing rain and lightning. This enormous

energy has shattered the artificial reflected world in the blue Mediterranean. But

Shirley feels as dead and as sterile as that world. He wants the

energy of the wind to move him. If you can no longer be inspired to write for

mankind he wanted to borrow energy from the wind. In stanza 1 It

drives the leaves in stanza 2. It drives the clouds

stanza 3 gives us the Atlantic driven by this wind all

surely Stern me with them like dead leaves

which fall under the thorns. He lies sore and in tangled but he

is not like the leaves. He is like the wind tameness and swift

and proud. He begs of the wind. The spirit of energy the vital

spirit of freedom to speak through him to make him sing like the forest.

Now before winter has come before Earth awakens use me

to start the destruction. Use me to loose the violence and the new world can

one day be built.

All wild west wind the breath of autumn's being

from whose unseen presence the leaves dead are driven like ghosts remain in Tranter

fleeing yellow and black and pale and hectic red

pestilence stricken mounted to you its holes are charities to their

dark winter the when you see where they lie cold and love

each like a corpse within its grave until I am as your sister of the

spring shall blow her clarion or the dreaming.

And for driving sweet buds like flocks to feed him with living

hues and odors play and his wild spirit

which are moving every way her destroyer and Preserver

here or here.

Round one whose stream made the steep skies commotion loose clouds

like a stick eying leaves and shared shook from the tangled boughs of heaven

and ocean angels of rain and lightning. They are

spread on the blue surface of an Aries. Like the bright hair

uplifted from the head of something as Mina had even from the dim verge of the

horizon to the Senate's height the locks of the approaching

storm with our dirge of the dying year to which

this closing night will be the dome of a vast sample code vaulted with

like congregated mind to vapors from whose solid atmosphere

black rain and fire and hail will burst.

Oh here.

Who did waken from his summer dreams the blue Mediterranean where he led a

lot of old by the coil of his crystalline streams beside a pommy silent

by his back and saw in silly old palaces and

towers quivering within the waves intensity. All

overgrown with as your mouse and flowers sweet the

scents feigns picturing them.

The folk whose path the Atlantic's level powers Cleave themselves

into chasms while far below the sea blooms in the

woods which where the sapless foliage of the ocean and

the high voice and suddenly grown gray with fear and

trembling and despoil themselves

whole here.

If I were to Deadly my despair if I want a swift

cloud to fly with he waved a hand beneath my power and

share the impulse of my strength only less free than the

uncontrollable. If even I was in my boyhood

and could be the comrade of my wanderings over heaven I was there and went to

outstrip like Sky you speed scarce seemed a vision I

wouldn't have striven as thus with thee in prayer in

soul and lead.

Oh lift me as a way to leave a cloud would

I fall upon the thorns of life I lead.

The heavy weight of his chains and bowed while I too

like the tame lace and swift and

proud.

Make me that I live even as the Far East is ready for my

leaves are falling like its own.

The tumult of the mighty harmonies will take from both the D

autumnal tones sweet though in sadness

be thy spirit fierce my spirit be thy

me impetuous one.

Drive my thoughts over the universe like withered leaves to quicken a

new birth.

And by the incantation of this scatter I was from and extinguished

hearth ashes and sparks my words among mankind.

Be through my lips are now awakened earth the trumpet of a prophet

say.

Or when if winter comes

Can Spring be far behind what Shelley has to

say in this ode is bound up inseparably with the ancient awareness of human beings

that in nature there is perpetual growth death and rebirth.

The images of the first stanza contrasts the dying of autumn with the rebirth

of spring. She was an atheist who did not believe in

immortality in the day of judgment and spiritual rebirth in a life of

freedom from the sins humanity of the flesh. In heaven. But it was a

product of a Christian civilization and its imagery influences him.

There will need seeds like each like a corpse in its grave until dying

as your sister of the spring shall blow Clarion or the dreaming of this

spring's Clarion which awakens the dreaming is Shelley's equivalent of

the last trumpet of Christianity the trumpet which sounds on the day of judgment

and awakens the dead from their sleep to a new life.

The image of the Last Judgment permeates the English verse about three centuries

Shakespeare puts it in the bents mind in that line which looks forward through day after day of the

future to the last syllable of recorded time. That moment when the

recording angel would have written the last syllable of history and time shall have a stop.

The same vision is in prosperous mind when he tells Ferdinand in The Tempest

not to be dismayed by the sudden disappearance of the seemingly solid mass because all

men and women the great globe itself will one day vanish when time gives

place to eternity. Some two centuries before Shelley

wrote another poet but a Christian one was imagining the last judgment

when he open one of his sonnets with at the round imagined

corner.

Blow your trumpets angels and the rounds arise from

death. You know this when it is of souls and to your scattered

bodies go what other link is there between John Donne the

tormented Christian and Percy Shelley the tormented atheist.

Each wrote a poem full of energy and wish each was feeling frustrated

tired of failure incapable of doing what seemed to him of greatest

importance in life. We've heard Sherry's poem here done.

Only we shall not hear the sonnet from which those lines come. But another in which he begged

God to possess him as utterly as surely wanted to be subdued to the energy of the wind

batter my heart three persons.

God for you as yet but not brave to shine and

seek to mend that I may rise and stand or

throw me and bend your first or break blow burn and make me

new.

I like and use Howard to another do you labor to admit you

know and reason your viceroy in me me should

defend.

But he is captive and proves weak core untrue

yet dearly I love you and would beloved fade but

ember TROs done to your enemy. Divorce me

untie or break that knot again. Take me to you

imprison me for I accept you and throw me.

Never shall be free nor ever chaste

except you ravish me.

Here is another poet striving begging imploring to be

taken and mastered used by something greater than himself. Show

me who has no god adores liberty as a spirit as an

energy of the human soul. His West Wind is for him a vast

source of energy which must possess him as completely is done which is to be

overwhelmed by his God.

For I accept you in thrall need never shall be free

nor ever chaste except you ravish me.

First Surely freedom is not a matter of being inthe rolled by a God but by a

living idea. Nevertheless he strives with His breath of autumn's

being in words of prayer which echo the Old Testament when men do not only

wrestle in prayer but Jacob wrestles literally all night with the angel who visits his

tent and leaves him lame. What about.

He does not want just to wrestle with his god whose adversity has become despite

himself or perhaps has done fears because of himself or what he is

essentially.

Which is why he must be remade batter my heart

three person God for us yet but not breathe to

shine and seek to mend.

That I may rise and stand or throw me and bend your thirst or

break blow burn and make me new.

At first he speaks of himself as some kind of metal utensil in the hands of a

tinker or some such Smith and then the third line has a logical

digression. But the poets want and emotion unchanged.

Dunn wants to be crushed and remade. In this case we have the paradox

of that I may rise and stand or through me and

then the image of metalworking reasserts itself that I

may rise and stand or throw me and bend your force to break

blow burn and make me new. Ben means direct

to direct your force to break it.

This line answers the second for you as yet but not

breed.

Why seek to man.

Dunn does not want his god to knock but to break him not to breathe but to

blow. Not to shine but to burn. Don't seek to mend he pleads

but make me knew the second quatrain of this sonnet has another image

through which to express the same need the same emotion.

I like a news tower to another do you labor to admit you

know and reason your viceroy in me me should

defend.

But he is captive and proves we are untrue in the first

quatrain Don expresses his awareness of himself as requiring new

making a conversion from sin into a saved. But now

he's more aware of himself as a helpless betraying of God the image of the

zip town is apt. He feels himself guilty of surrender to Satan

despite his longing to be a holy God. Reason is God's viceroy in

this town which is changed hands if not sides. This is not

reason as it has been conceived in and since the eighteenth century as Sherry

thought of it. Reason for Dunn is still the immortal part of man. The link

with the angels and with God when reason is healthy and in control.

No man can be separated from God but in done to use it on

God's Viceroy has surrendered to the enemy in weakness or in Treasury.

The imagery of this derives from an idea latent in the opening words batter my

heart three persons to God the notion of the Trinity the three

person God battering Dunn's heart suggests another of an engine of siege

warfare. Perhaps a three headed battering ram.

Batter My Heart three person God for us yet but

not brave. Shine and seek to mend.

That I may rise and stand or throw me and bend your force to

break blow burn and make me new.

Like a news tower to another labor to admit you

know and reason your viceroy in me should

defend.

But he is captive and proves we go on.

True the unity of these first eight lines the octave

is an expression of done Central need to be treated as violently as if he were an

enemy before he can be reconciled to his three person God and this

inner unity shows itself outwardly in a rhyme scheme which rings the changes on

no more than two rhymes.

You mentioned being new do you and defend

true at the end of the octave at the alter comes the turn of the

thought which shows itself in a new rhyme.

Yes Dear Lou I love you and would beloved say

treat me as irreparable done bags as an enemy.

Crush me and make me new. Subdue me and enforce peace. Look

I'm divorced from you yet dearly I love you and want to be loved by you.

This is a love poem with a difference. Dunn is not concerned with the love of sanity is

for a lady real or the idealized representative of the virtues or a symbol of

purity of so he wants to love and be loved by his God.

He has gone far past Sidney's please leave me

all love which reaches to but to dust and down my mind.

Aspire to higher things. Grow Rich in that which never

taketh rest. Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings.

Draw in thy beams and humble all of I might to that

sweet yoke Well lasting freedom's be which breaks the

clouds and opens forth the light. That dust

both shine and give us sight to see. Oh

take fast hold. Let that light be thy

guide in this small course which birth draws out to death.

And think how evil become of him to slide. Who

seek of heaven and comes of heavenly breath.

Then farewell world thy uttermost. I

see eternal life

maintained by life in me.

Sidney speaks with calm and confidence. Dun agonizes just this side of

despair not despair for a lady but for his own salvation. That is why

we have the appropriate images of violence.

Divorce me untie or break that knot again.

Take me to you imprison me.

Dunn now breaks the strict rules of sonnet writing. So far his rhymes in the

sestet have been feigned and to me again

now he repeats the E sound three times. But what he

loses in not conforming with his rhymes. He gains in intensity

the 12 lines in a word now pronounced I. But then he in

this reading may have decided it would be too precious to say for never shall be

free. The couplet brings the resolution with the last line of the third

quatrain running on into this for I accept you in thrall

need never shall be free nor ever chaste

except you ravish me again wonders a word with Paradox

to be free you must be enthralled to be chaste You must be ravished

chaste as used in the sense of undefiled to be undefiled he must be

raped by God. This poet has given us His own version

of themes and images which we meet in traditional love sonnets French's

seventh sonnet to list here says death in a rage assaulted once my heart

with the love of her.

He talks of his defeat by Cupid. My heart lay guarded

so conquered Now he like a captive lies large

wails in Sonnet 25 to Phyllis. I wage the combat with two

mighty foes and constables fifth sonnet to Diana says

my reason absent did mine I was required to watch and ward and

such foes descry as they should in my heart approaching spy

but traitor eyes my heart to death to inspire corrupted with hopes.

It's Letty in design. Another sonnet to Diana begins

to live in Hell and Heaven to behold. This is metaphorical

but done is much nearer suffering the agony literally. One

more example Creighton's 40 of Sonnet 2 idea. My

heart the anvil. When my thoughts do beat my words the hammers

fashioning my desires my breasts the forge including all the

heat. Love is the fuel which maintains the fire. My sighs the bellows

which the flame increases. How trivial does all this sound up to down.

Let's leave this pretty appropriateness for done searing experience

batter my heart three person God for you as yet but

not breathe to shine and seek to mend

that I may rise and stand or throw me and bend your force to

break blow burn and make me new.

I like a news tower to another do you labor to admit you

know and reason your viceroy in me me should

defend.

But he is captive and proves weak core untrue.

Yet dearly I love you and would be love and fame but I'm

Botros done to your enemy. Divorce me

untie or break that knot again. Take me to you

imprison me for I accept you and throw me.

Never shall be free nor ever chaste

except you ravish me.

It is done right or wrong. He believes that his own sin prevents his repentance.

He wants a violent energy to batter him into a new life. Here is the great

affinity with Shelly. They are very dissimilar. Of course but like Donne

Shelly wants an energy outside him to break blow burn and make him new. They

both pray for violence.

Make me the highlight even as the funny stories. What if my

leaves are falling like it's own. The tumult of the eye mighty harmonies will

take from both the Dee or Tom the whole tone sweet though in

sadness.

Be thy speech for us. My ST be the

be impetuous one drives my thoughts

over the universe like withered leaves to quicken a new birth.

And by the incantation of this scatter as from an under extinguished

hot ashes and stocks my words among mankind

be through my lips are now awakened as the trumpet of a prophet

say o your way and if winter

comes Can Spring be far behind.

You have been listening to a program on Shelley's over to the west wind and Donne sonnet 14 of his

holy sonnets therof I will read Sidney sonnets and part of one

by down the ode was read by diary boys Jonathan for I want to read Donne

sonnet.

This is from Joseph inviting you to be with us again.

This program was produced by Radio Broadcast Services of the University of Washington under a

grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

This is the national educational radio network.